Katy Perry Revealed How She Spent Her Teen Years “Praying The Gay Away” At Jesus Camps

So Katy Perry won an award at the Human Rights Campaign’s LA Gala on Saturday, and her acceptance speech was BRILLIANT.

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Katy, who won HRC’s National Equality Award for all her work on LGBTQ equality, talked about the fact that she grew up in an Evangelical Christian household, where she was taught to fear homosexuality as if it were evil.

“When I was growing up homosexuality was synonymous with the word abomination, and hell,” she revealed. And not wanting to go to hell herself she told the audience that, “most of my unconscious adolescence I prayed the gay away at my Jesus camps.”

Katy then talked about the fact that singing brought her out of her bubble because she started meeting people from the LGBTQ community and realised they were nothing like she had been taught to fear. “They were the most free, strong, kind and inclusive people I have ever met,” she said.

One of our fave parts of the speech was when Katy told everyone that while her famous 2008 break-out song I Kissed A Girl was autobiographical, it wasn’t entirely factual. “Truth be told… I did more than that,” she said, to laughter and applause. WHAAT? This is amazing.

Despite the fact that early in her career Katy Perry was just seen as a fairly neutral popstar who didn’t really speak out about important issues, she said she is now fully living her authentic self, speaking out about the issues she feels are important – and that she feels happier for it.

She talked a lot about how much people from the LGBTQ community have taught her. “You don’t get to choose your family, but you can choose your tribe,” Katy said. “There is no other community that has done more to shape who I am today, and there is no other community that I believe in more than you.”

“I’ll never cease to be a champion, an ally, a spotlight, and a loving voice for all LGBTQ identifying people… We can’t let our past get in the way of our brilliant future.”

GOD we love her and, what’s more, we love her for the outspoken advocate for equality she has become, not just for the colourful quirky popstar she was.